Available in paperback £7.50 plus £1.05 p+p, from the publishers, (please see our "Contact Us" page) or usual stockists.
In this unusual book of verse there is something for everyone. Moods and subjects range from the sensitive to the sensual, from the sublime to the sublimely ridiculous. The eighty pages of sonnets, short and long poems represent a writing span of fifty-five years. Richard Hislop spent four years in India and Burma during and after WW11. His poems reflect the futility of war and are disturbingly relevant today, especially "Requiem for the Future" written at the time of the Gulf War. There are thirty poems in the section "Love Songs and Sensualities" and a number of nostalgic poems with Bedfordshire, London and Oxfordshire settings. And something for animal rights; a campaign song perhaps? This delightfully presented book should be kept close at hand for, as the author says in his preface, "distraction and delight". The open minded reader will find both.
"this is a book for my bedside"
Reviews and readers’ comments:
"This attractive book of hitherto unpublished poems covers a writing span of fifty five years, but, believe me, it is worth the wait. The love poems are hauntingly beautiful, imbued with passion and romance. The humorous ones had me laughing out loud."
"A pure delight. Yes, the music is there in many forms from the light caprice to the full blown symphony. I imagine that anyone reading Richard Hislop’s poems will find much which comes close to their individual lives they are the stuff of life and, whilst reading them I was, at one moment, close to tears and at the next transported to laughter. From the memorable front cover to the tranquillity of the last poem, ‘Go placidly’, this is a book for my bedside."
Cover designed and illustrations by Fiona Tedman
Price £7.50 (UK and Europe), £8.50 elsewhere